


apple blossoms & burned hands

by sunbeans



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben's Smitten And Rey's Kinda Oblivious, F/M, Fluff, Modern AU, and they were neighbors, can i get an f for ben solo, finnpoerose is the hill i die on thanks!!!, i simply write the content i wish to see in the world, kaydel/jannah is also PRESENT!, rey ; rose ; kaydel ; & jannah are roommates, tbh ben never gets to have a happy past no matter what the au, the dyad: two halves of the same braincell, the rating's gonna go up at some point because WOOH BOY there's more to ben solo than meets the eye
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25325449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunbeans/pseuds/sunbeans
Summary: In which the new neighbor is too sweet for his own good, & yet too strange for Rey to forget.---inspired by @directedbyrian's run-in with her neighbor because it's what the queen deserves
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	apple blossoms & burned hands

**Author's Note:**

> listen, i know, i have wips to do, but this prompt was RIGHT UP MY ALLEY GUYS, so it's Mysterious Cute Neighbor Hours.
> 
> prompt: https://twitter.com/reylo_prompts/status/1283597281829064705  
> the inspo: @directedbyrian  
> the handle of the idiot writing this: @sunbeanery
> 
> notes:  
> >rey and finn are 22  
> >rose is 23  
> >kaydel and poe are 24  
> >jannah's 25  
> >ben's 26  
> >they live in coruscant, california  
> >ben's got anxiety, ptsd, and a slight stutter ( he's trying his best  
> >he's in therapy  
> >rey probably NEEDS therapy  
> >rey, rose, jannah, and kaydel live together in a loft apartment  
> >ben lives in another loft apartment across from them  
> >jannah is lando's daughter and i love her  
> >i think that's all you need to know??  
> >oh and ben's 6"7 because it gives me serotonin but he also has faint scars across his forehead bc he never learned to duck

Today is an actual disaster.  
  
Scratch that --- Rey Johnson’s life may be a screaming, flaming tire-and-trash fire on a good day, but today was… _especially_ bad. 

First, her alarm didn’t go off --- which, okay, this is why you have backups, _sure,_ but not if you turn your phone backup off on the weekend. And then forget to set it. And then wake up with 15 minutes to get ready and drive to work.

The day starts with a failed system, and it continues with Rey tripping over Beebee -- which , _god ,_ she loves her Corgi. Really, she does. But he had a really, _really_ bad habit of falling asleep in weird spots. It’s just her luck that The Spot this morning was close enough to her bed to trip over, but far enough away so she could put her feet down, take a singular step, and then WHAM! She’s eating carpet.

Then the shower’s cold because she woke up after Kaydel, her hairdryer won’t start, and and she puts the wrong uniform on ( because today’s the day she has a shift at the coffee shop, not the auto shop ) and god, at the _very least_ Rose set out breakfast for her.

Maybe the worst thing about today was the fact that her car finally died, and neither Han nor Chewie could make it out until tomorrow, at least. Which was fine, she was working with them tomorrow, but _damn it, she’s late today!_

So she rides her bike to Galaxy’s Brew’s, has to ride BACK for being out of uniform because of all the managers to get on this shitty day, it had to be Krystal, the “I’m going to give all my friends the best shifts and make everyone who doesn’t kiss my ass regret stepping into this absolute **nightmare** of a job! ” kind of manager.

Fun. 

* * *

She’s exhausted by the time she gets home, buns half-falling apart as she struggles to bring what groceries she could load on her bike up the stairs. ( Maybe she’s just tired, maybe it’s the fatigue of Krystal and her “friends” all conveniently taking breaks together to leave Rey alone during the lunch rush. Maybe she’s finally registering the fact that she got coffee thrown at her, and her right hand, sloppily bandaged, is struggling to carry the bags. If it weren’t for her pride, she’d take Han’s offer up on working full time with him. After today, she’s _seriously_ considering it. )

“The fourth floor is _great_ exercise,” she and Rose told their skeptical roommates, “It’ll be fine living at the top of a building without an elevator,” they said! “It’s a small price to pay for one of the two lofts in the whole building that’s cheaper than everything we've looked at so far!”

Her calves are already _screaming_ about how wrong she is when she gets to the second floor. 

By the third floor, she can’t feel her arms. Or her legs. God, she’s glad Rose introduced her to bath bombs, because she’s using one tonight.

By the loft floors, she barely registers someone rushing over to her, until a _shockingly_ deep voice rips her out of The Post-Customer Service Fog. 

“Are you okay?”

Bleary eyes turn to a wall of -- black? Fuzzy, like a sweater, until the wall of _fuzzy black_ shifts, and Rey has the common sense to look _up, up, up,_ until her neck’s craned at an awkward, awful angle. 

It WAS a sweater --- somehow oversized on this absolute _mountain_ of a man, hair messy and posture slouched, as if trying to make himself as small as her. _Non-threatening,_ she realizes, suddenly and with a clarity that belonged to a Rey with coffee in her veins, _he’s trying to look non-threatening._ His eyes look tired --- yet soft, _questioning,_ with flecks of gold hidden behind black - lensed glasses & messy black curls escaping from a haphazard bun. 

( She’s definitely not staring, what are you talking about? )

“Um --- sorry, I just --- “ And then this massive, bespectacled, deep-voiced mountain starts _stuttering,_ of all things, as if his mouth’s moving faster than his brain, “ Do you need help? Your hand -- and, uh, the _bags_ , and --- “

“Are you… asking to carry my bags? “ Rey somehow stops the stranger's rambling, the tips of his ears turning a handsome shade of pink as his gaze breaks from hers. “--- yeah, I am. Would that, um… would that be _okay?_ ”

Ordinarily, Rey would say no --- that she could handle it herself, because that’s how she’s _always_ gotten through life, but life hasn’t exactly taught her how to deal with _deep voiced, freckled, brick-house boys in soft sweaters with puppy dog eyes and too-full lips with a faint scar and dark curls ---_

Which is how she ends up getting her groceries gingerly, _carefully_ plucked from her hands and carried into her apartment by said _massive sweater-wearing boy with haphazard curls & dark lashes & bandaged hands _that offers to put her groceries away.

It’s oddly endearing, coming from a complete stranger --- especially one that was so nervous about offering help. Rey can't tell if it's because he's naturally shy, or because ( according to her roommates ) she looks like she's ready to commit _murder_ after a long day at the coffee shop. And he doesn't really stop talking, offering well-meaning idle commentary and small-talk, which Rey can't help but join in on as they put groceries away.

The strangest thing is when mid - conversation, explaining that he’s moved into the long-vacant loft across the hall and _before_ she can even get his name, he realizes -- before _she_ even does --- that one of the apples she bought to kinda-sorta-bribe-Rose-to-make-one-of-her-apple-pies-with was missing from its bag. And just like that, with a _sorry, I’ll be right back!_ thrown over his shoulder, sweater boy tears off mid-conversation, only to return with the lost apple and a sheepish smile. “ Sorry --- there was a hole in the bottom of the bag, and I just figured it’d be, uh, around here. Somewhere.”

( His hand comically dwarfs the honeycrisp in his hand, & it’s an image that haunts her in the best & worst of ways. )

Nevertheless, she takes it --- a warm smile blooming on her face like the flowers she tends to on the roof. “Thanks, _neighbor,_ “ she shoots back, and it’s then that she realizes that amidst the groceries and small-talk, they haven’t introduced themselves -- not _really._

“I’m Rey, by the way.” She sticks her hand out --- a bit too fast, considering that her poor neighbor flinches instinctively. “Sorry, by the way. About the groceries.”

His eyes are searching --- inquisitive, still wide-eyed and full of a rapid stream of emotions, _thoughts,_ before his hand slowly extends to clasp hers --- & for a comically large man, he’s far too careful with her. ( It’s almost sweet --- he holds her hand like the apple he brought back in, like he’s afraid she’ll bruise, too. Overly cautious and a bit strange, but _sweet,_ in it’s own way. )

“ ‘m Ben, “ he replies with that soft, _deep_ voice of his, thoughtful as a shy smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, “ and don’t apologize. It was the least I could do, _neighbor._ “ 

The moment that passes between them is shattered when sweater-boy -- _Ben ---_ looks at her badly-bandaged hand, eyes widening slightly. “Sorry--- I forgot about your hand ! Um, may I…?”

“...what?” Rey blinks out of her stupor, & somehow he’s holding her hand even _softer,_ his own bandaged-laced fingertips examining them with care -- just like those soft, expressive eyes of his as his brows knit together in concentration. “Oh--- it’s just a mild burn, really -- messed up a cranky bloke’s order at Galaxy’s Brew. Turns out he didn’t take kindly to an accidental three sugars instead of 4.” 

“...that’s awful.” His gaze tears from her hands, and the same eyes that stared so intensely at her injury _melt_ again. “Do you have anything to wrap this with?”

* * *

And like most things involving Ben today, that’s how she finds herself on the couch as her strangely large-yet-soft neighbor finishes wrapping her hand. Because really, he _insisted_ on helping her --- and Rey didn’t want to think of how hard it would be to try and dress her dominant hand. Mind you, she’s done it before, but Rey’s starting to learn that maybe, just _maybe,_ she’s already developed a weakness for those soft honey-brown eyes -- young, but old at the same time, framed by dark lashes & dark circles & _a haphazard galaxy of freckles and moles splattered across his face._

She learns a lot about him, & yet nothing at all --- twenty-six, likes plants, _loves_ books ( but only has half of them unpacked right now ) & a surprisingly good chef --- she makes a mental note to introduce him to Rose when he mentions that he’s _sorta_ new to town, but can’t figure out why he’s so antsy about it --- about his life previous, or anything deeper. He could tell her small, mundane, intimate things, like how he’s trying to get one of his ferns in _just the right spot_ & asking for her advice on succulents when he spots hers in the window, yet tenses when he sees one of their group photos.

For a brief, haunting, _heartbreaking_ instant, Rey swears she saw a hint of _fear_ in his eyes when his gaze falls on Jannah. But it passes as quickly as it arrives, and it’s one of the _many_ details about him that swirl in her mind like the apple blossom-scented bath bomb that tickles her nose.

She’s had an unfortunate habit of trying to _fix_ people like she would _fix_ things in Jakku. But she can’t help but feel it -- a _pull_ to him, an inquisitive itch that prickles at the back of her mind --- not in warning, but in soft confirmation: there’s a lot more to Ben than he cares to admit, but he’s _lonely._ It’s the same kind of loneliness that made a home in her chest, twisting through her bones, & now sits at the edges of his eyes, or how he nervously excused himself because he thinks she’s busier than she _actually is._ Then again, he promptly runs _forehead-first_ into the low door frame, though, and Rey questions if her neighbor is secretly a giraffe stuck in a human body. ( Or at the very least, risking a concussion whenever he leaves a room. ) 

Maybe that’s why she insisted on giving him her number before he leaves --- _for emergencies,_ she told herself, _just in case._ God forbid Kaydel and Jannah need some time alone, or Rose’s boyfriends come over…

 _That’s not the real reason_ , her mind unhelpfully supplies, and you know it. _You just don’t want him to be alone like you are._

 _Like I was,_ Rey corrects, indignant even towards herself.

_In some ways, you still are._

Her inner voice sounds a lot like Maz, she decides as she trudges to bed ---- with thoughts of soft brown eyes & messy dark hair haunting her hazy, petal-soft dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> W H E W!!!! idk how often i'll update but y'all, this gives me the serotonin so i might delay my sequel trilogy rewrite???? either way i'm already living for Curious Rey and Mysterious Sweater Boy


End file.
